A Young Woman's Heart

"Mo Xueyao," Nora repeated awkwardly.

“Can you speak English?” Mr. Xue asked in English.

"He's just a hunter passing through, how could he possibly speak English? This isn't a big city..." Mo Xueyao muttered, her eyelids drooping.

But to everyone's surprise, Nora switched to English very smoothly and naturally to communicate.

Although he has a Russian accent, he is still understandable if he speaks slowly.

The five of them talked as they walked to the edge of the forest and sat in the back of Nora's pickup truck.

To be precise, it should be a conversation between four people. Hua Yinyin's English level is not yet at the point where she can communicate freely with others; at most, she can only understand some of the vocabulary.

Mo Xueyao sat in the passenger seat, responsible for giving Nora directions so that she could help bring everyone back to the town.

……

Chapter Fifty-Nine: An Unexpected Encounter

Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year. After yesterday's ice fishing, there was a grilled fish party. The second day is free time, where adults can play and children can play.

Mo Xueyao and her three companions then conceived the idea of ​​exploring the mountains and forests.

The main reason was that I felt the mountain was so close to the town that there shouldn't be any wild animals, so I thought I'd take a walk in the mountains, climb to the top, and experience the exotic scenery.

It started snowing heavily halfway through, making the mountain road difficult to walk, so the group found a cave to take shelter in.

Unexpectedly, the cave turned out to be a place where bears hibernate. It was pitch black inside, and it wasn't until Mo Xueyao touched something furry that she discovered a bear lying there.

Then, the hibernating bears gradually began to awaken.

The four hurriedly fled for a distance, but the bear still followed the scent left behind by the group.

Then they met Nora, and to be honest, the fact that she dared to bump into a bear with her own body really startled everyone.

It's very close to the town; it only takes a few minutes to drive back.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Mo Xueyao and Nora were talking, with Nora occasionally throwing in a few words of Russian that they couldn't understand.

The car came to a smooth stop on the side of the road.

"OK." Nora made a gesture.

"Thanks," Mo Xueyao said sincerely. After hesitating for a moment, she pushed open the car door and jumped out.

Nora then got out of the car, and with her help, Li Wanyan and the other two, who had been exposed to a cold wind, climbed down from the truck bed.

A cold wind brushed against Nora's face, her long, deep red hair fluttering in the wind, and pure snowflakes fell on the tips of her hair, becoming embellishments.

Mo Xueyao suddenly realized why her face seemed somewhat familiar.

Although they had been chatting all the way, the first time they truly looked into each other's eyes and carefully examined each other was after they got off the bus.

As if by some kind of telepathic connection, the two pointed at each other and exclaimed in unison—

"Morning Star!"

"Glimmer?"

"What's wrong with these two?" Hua Yinyin looked at Mr. Xue beside her in confusion. "They're like long-lost sisters."

"It can't be such a coincidence, can it?" Li Wanyan seemed to understand something.

"What?!" Hua Yinyin nudged Li Wanyan. "Class monitor, tell me quickly, what happened?"

“Yaoyao has a friend who lives in Russia and uses the pen name Morning Star. She showed me her picture; she also has red hair.”

"Is this what they call meeting a kindred spirit in a foreign land?" Hua Yinyin exclaimed in surprise. "Ah—oh no, she's hugging Xiao Yaoyao! No, no, if this keeps up, Xiao Yaoyao will be snatched away!"

"Don't make things worse..." Mr. Xue helplessly grabbed Hua Yinyin's arm and pulled her back. "This is Russian etiquette."

"Damn it, does etiquette require such intimacy! Hugging is one thing, but kissing on the cheek is another!" Hua Yinyin's jealousy made Mr. Xue and Li Wanyan, who were standing to the side, feel as if they could smell a sour scent.

The two who met by chance completely forgot about everyone else. No correspondence could compare to face-to-face conversation.

However, neither of them is native English, so although they are fairly good at it, communication is still not very smooth.

Mo Xueyao's English is fairly standard, while Nora's has a strong Russian accent, and it always sounds like her tongue is curled up. Sometimes it takes two or three times to understand a sentence, but this does not affect their enthusiasm.

This was such a pleasant surprise.

Moscow is so big, it's incredible that we could meet by chance in the mountains outside the city. It's like fate had brought us together.

“Glimmer, even in my dreams I can’t imagine meeting you here!” Nora excitedly grabbed Mo Xueyao’s hand, found a wooden bench in the town, and pushed the snow off it. “Sit down and talk! I’ll go to the vending machine next to buy some drinks. What would you like to drink?”

“Uh-Huh…Anything hot?” Mo Xueyao shivered, indicating that she was very cold. “Also, also, let’s go to the room to sit? Or go to the roof of the building, where there are artificial spas.”

“No problem, then buy hot coffee, do your friends drink too?”

“They should be okay.” Mo Xueyao nodded, then turned to the others behind her and called out, “Let’s go inside. I’m freezing! Didn’t they say the rooftop hot spring would be ready this afternoon? It should be ready now, right?”

"I don't know, let's go up and see. I want to soak in the hot spring with Xiaoyao!" Hua Yinyin hugged Mo Xueyao's arm and clung to her side. "Hmph, I won't let anyone take Xiaoyao away from me!"

Nora glanced at Hua Yinyin strangely, then smiled slightly as if she understood.

"Hi, my name is Li Wanyan," Li Wanyan stepped forward and formally introduced herself. "I am Mo Xueyao's classmate."

“Hehe! My name is Xue Xiansheng, not Mr. Xue.” Mr. Xue extended his hand and said with a smile.

“Hello.” Nora pointed to herself and extended her right hand to firmly shake Mr. Snow’s hand. “My name is Nora, Nora Elante Ivy.”

"She's incredibly strong," Mr. Xue said in Chinese, somewhat surprised, after shaking hands.

"Huh, so it really is all muscle under those clothes?" Hua Yinyin sized up her 'rival'. "Xiaoxue's palms even have red marks."

"What about you? What's your name?" Nora didn't understand Mr. Xue's Chinese, so she turned to Hua Yinyin and asked.

"Hum, my name is Huayinyin!" Huayinyin looked up at Nora, who was much taller than her, and said, "I'm warning you, little Yaoyao is mine!"

"What did she say later?" Nora asked Mo Xueyao to translate.

“Hmm... nice to meet you—she said so,” Mo Xueyao said nonsensically.

"Wow, she looks really cute when she says this, like a cute little raccoon, is she your sister?"

"Ah, no..." Mo Xueyao almost choked on her saliva, "She is also my classmate."

"You two look so petite, unlike high school students."

"Hey, don't think I don't understand! Are you saying I'm short?!" Hua Yinyin shouted, hands on her hips. "Xiao Yaoyao, translate for me!"

"Can't you just say it in English?"

"Damn it, I only got 72 in English, barely passing, okay? I can't even have a normal conversation!"

"Serves you right for not studying properly," Mo Xueyao teased. "Can you stop clinging to my arm? You can't walk anymore, can you?"

"in spite of!"

“Hua Yinyin is asserting sovereignty,” Li Wanyan commented.

“Yes, that’s right.” Mr. Xue nodded. “In short, let’s go up first; it’s just right to have a hot spring after walking so long outside.”

“Okay, come on, let’s have some warm coffee first. Weiguang and I are believers, oh yes, now it should be her real name, Mo Xueyao—but I still prefer the name GIimmer.” Nora smiled and handed the coffee that had fallen out of the vending machine to everyone.

“I prefer the name Nora,” Mo Xueyao said, tilting her head.

So the group went into the large building in the center of town that resembled a church.

This towering building has eight floors, which is taller than a typical residential building, so it is actually equivalent to a typical residential building of more than ten floors.

There is no elevator; you can only get to the top floor on foot.

"Glimmer, are your parents here?"

“Whew... come... come, but... but I don't know where to go, it seems to say what to buy in Moscow by car... what souvenirs have gone,” Mo Xueyao said breathlessly. They had finally reached the rooftop.

To be precise, it should be the top floor.

Because the rooftop is an arched dome, there are only some small platforms for stargazing, so it's impossible to build a hot spring.

The dome on the top floor is made of stained glass, which is semi-transparent, allowing a glimpse of the sky.

Because of the heat, there was no snow on the glass, so you could enjoy the view of the sky outside.

There is a small counter at the entrance, which is usually open for a fee, but is only open for free during the Chinese New Year.

To accommodate the Chinese people who came back to celebrate the birthday, a Chinese person who speaks Russian was specially arranged to help out here.

"Here you go~ Please take the key and this hot spring outfit~" Mo Xueyao walked to the counter, where a woman in her thirties smiled and said.

The so-called hot spring outfit is actually a swimsuit. Mo Xueyao was given the smallest set, which was all black with some black lace trim.

It doesn't look like a full-coverage swimsuit, but rather a bikini...

This made her a little scared.

Wearing a bikini?

What's the difference between that and not wearing anything at all?

I don't think there's a huge difference...

Although when you're a boy, you only need to wear swim trunks to go swimming, it feels different after you have a pair of breasts like these.

Although she's not very old.

"It seems like Xiaoyao and I both got the smallest size," Hua Yinyin said boastfully. "That means Xiaoyao and I are a pair!"

"You're kidding me," Mo Xueyao said, her eyelids drooping. "It's just that we're the shortest two, okay?"

Sure enough, what Li Wanyan received was slightly different.

It's not black, but gray, which seems to expose more.

Mo Xueyao took a closer look at the swimsuit in her hand and found that the top was a cropped tank top style. Although it was a bit strange, it was much better than Li Wanyan's swimsuit, which was basically just a bra.

Mr. Xue received swimming trunks, while Nora received a red swimsuit. Because it was in a bag, it was hard to tell what style it was, but it looked like it would be very sexy.

Men and women change clothes in separate changing rooms, but the hot spring pool they enter at the end is unisex.

There are large pools and small pools. The large pools are for groups of people to soak in, while the small pools are for people who know each other well. They can probably seat seven or eight people.